


Insulting Peace

by otherrealmwriter



Category: Invader Zim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:53:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27377506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otherrealmwriter/pseuds/otherrealmwriter
Summary: After a long day at Skool, Dib heads to the one place where he will find peace. Where an insulting AI makes him ponder peace. Written for the WA Special Places challenge
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Insulting Peace

I don't own Invader Zim okay? This is for the Writer's Anonymous "Special Places" challenge. So anyway, enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

"Who throws a cupcake?" Dib asked, as he took the iced sweet and threw it in the trash.

"Who keeps a cupcake thrown on their head on their head all the way from Skool to the house?" Gaz asked.

"Touche Gaz. Touche." Dib sighed as they headed into the house where a floating tele-screen had appeared.

"Hello children, I do hope your day proved productive. I am sorry I am not able to meet you when you come home but my duty is to all of mankind. Son brush your teeth and don't steal. Daughter, feed the puppy." Professor Membrane's recorded message said.

"He's been telling me to do that how long and he doesn't know we don't have that damn dog anymore?" Gaz sighed.

"I know. I know." Dib said as he went to kitchen, made himself a sandwich, revolting at the sight of the only meat being bologna, and deciding instead on peanut butter and jelly and a glass of milk. Looking at the date he sniffed it. "Rancid." And grabbed a Poop cola instead. It had been this way for years. Most of the time Gaz and he lived off fast food because there wasn't much else left in the house, it took a lot for them to get ahold of their father to tell them they needed something from the store and even then most of the time, it was one of his lab assistants who had gotten them. Lately, with the grocery store having a delivery service, he decided to just do some shopping with his own generous allowance. "As if money makes up for being here." Dib sighed as he put a list together with the items he and Gaz had written down that they had ran out of. Can't wait till I'm old enough to drive. I'd take care of this myself. Dib thought as he pulled out his chemistry homework and looked over it with a sigh. "Easy." Being the son of Professor Membrane did have its perks, like being taught about basic chemistry principles that normally are taught at high school at a very young age. "Element 115 is actually Moscovium not Divinium." Dib said as he started on his homework.

"Wonder how many Call of Duty freaks will get that one wrong?" Gaz said as she came downstairs to make her a snack before her night of gaming.

"Most all of them. These are the same people who write book reports on movies of said books." Dib sighed. "This isn't going to take long."

"Maybe Mrs. Zettlemoyer set it up as a trap to catch the idiots from the smart people." Gaz suggested. "I'd love to see the work she has to grade and how many just used the Call of Duty wiki to do their freaking chemistry homework."

"She seems the type to." Dib sighed with a smile. After about a half hour of research, he was able to have a suitable paper written on the newly discovered element and then got up and headed away from the table.

"Where you going?" Gaz said blankly, starting at the toaster oven as her pizza heated up.

"The usual spot." Dib smiled.

"Whatever. Just make sure you get some sleep. I don't know how much longer before the school contacts Dad about you falling asleep in class." Gaz said.

"I get good enough grades, they should be happy. I think we're the only ones keeping it getting funding." Dib said.

"Well, Zim's science grade is pretty good." Gaz pointed out.

"Well to be fair if you are from a civilization that has perfected interstellar travel, most of what you know is well beyond any ninth grade science class ever could hope for. I think he just put Minimoose as a project for last year's science fair."

"And won." Gaz pointed out.

"And won." Dib growled, the memory still stinging him. He had worked hard on a project involving radio waves being broadcast from space and he had gotten just a participant ribbon. It wasn't dismissed as complete garbage, as having learned over the years that mankind couldn't take a blatant display of alien life, as they still took Zim as being a kid with a skin condition, so he decided when he had the chance to he would start small proving the small links of the paranormal that was accepted as part of mainstream science. Professor Membrane didn't say too much but took it as a sign that he was slowly growing out of his obsession with the "para-science".

He headed to the garage, opened the door and looked around. There was Tak's ship there. He was learning so much about the Irken race, the galaxy, interstellar travel, Irken history and conquest from the data banks on it. Sometimes he'd get into a debate with the AI that often led to a philosophical debate of "Why do you care about these people if they don't care about you?" and that would be his signal to turn off the ship for the night and go to bed and sleep for at least a few hours.

"So, back again?" The AI said in Tak's voice.

"You know the drill." Dib ordered. "I am not going to try uploading my personality to you again. That was a disaster."

"You had to do a complete hard drive wipe after that. I'm impressed you got be back to what Tak had done." The ship said.

"Took awhile. And learned a lot of stuff about myself I didn't want to." Dib sighed as he hooked his laptop into the database.

"Humans do not like looking at their flaws do they?" The ship asked.

"Nope. And I get enough psychoanalysis of myself from the guidance counselors in school. Everything from schizophrenia, latent homosexuality, a cry for attention, paranoia and daddy issues." Dib said. "I think one of them hasn't read an updated psychology book since the 1950s."

"Sounds like it. You know you are feeding me information via hooking me up to your laptop. I can access the most secure of wifi and learn anything and everything your planet knows."

"And?" Dib sighed. "I am going to try and work on your fusion reactors and see if we can get you flying again. This would go so much easier if you would TELL ME!"

"Nope." The AI teased. "You're one of the smartest the human race has to offer. You should be able to figure this out in no time."

"I thought AI was supposed to be non-biased." Dib said.

"Maybe your dumb idiotic human AI but even then you have your human biases programmed in. So how different is it from me really? I am Tak's personality programmed into this with the knowledge of Irk. So honestly I am acting like she would if she were helping you to fix me." The AI explained. "Does that bother you?"

"It's the only intelligent interaction I have." Dib sighed as he looked over the reactors.

"But what about your sister, your father?" The ship asked.

"Meh. They don't really communicate well. They have their things and that's it." Dib said. "It's not like I don't care but it's always one thing wrong after another. I think Gaz cares but my dad, if he does, he sure has a weird way of showing it."

"Dismissing your ideas as a phase does seem to be discouraging for child and parent bond development and just intellectual pursuit."

"Since when did you, an AI programmed with Tak's personality care about things like that?" Dib asked as he put on some goggles and took a portable welder out to remove a portion of the fusion reactor core. "This core fuel rod container looks cracked. Will me removing the mounts cause an atomic blast?"

"Nope. And I only say that because I could be destroyed in one as well if it were to happen." The ship added. "But you have a problem listening, don't you?"

"I do not!" Dib yelled taking offense.

"You must because if you were as smart as you like to think you'd know that I said I have connected to the internet and with my superior Irken processing power, I have studied all the information you humans posted there. So honestly, why are you surprised I learned about parent child relationships?"

"Point taken. But be quiet, I'm trying to focus here." Dib said as he detached the mounts and pulled out the fuel rod container. He headed over and placed it on the workbench looking it over. Taking a Geiger counter out, he put it over and detected no latent radiation.

"It wouldn't be radioactive." Tak's ship said.

"I see." Dib said. "So if an Irken computer in a ship, which is likely not as powerful as one that would be in an Invader's base can analyze the entire internet-"

"Well not all of it. There's some things there like on social media sites that make me wonder if it wouldn't be better if a giant meteor hit and I haven't gone in some areas as it just makes me sick but informational sites, the important stuff, I have indeed added to my databanks." Dib sighed.

"Well going on with the point I was trying to make," He rolled his eyes. "On pure technological processing power Zim's base could do the same. So why hasn't he?"

"You know the answer as well as I do."

"He's an idiot." Dib said with Tak's ship.

"Exactly." The AI said. "So why do you even bother?"

"Well ignoring the philosophical and psychological aspects of me wanting to protect the Earth, this is actually a challenge for me. I'm learning stuff I never would before. And there's no one to tell me I'm being an idiot wasting my time."

"I do that to you!" The AI yelled.

"But it's different coming from you. From you it's a challenge not a dismissal."

"So you're saying me berating you and questing your intelligence motivates you to do better?"

"Yep"

"But not other people, even your own family."

"Nope."

"So this is your little shangri-la as is said in human culture."

"Yep."

"A heaven of your own where you are insulted by the artifical intelligence of an Irken who wanted to replace your planet's molten core with snacks? Does not compute."

"Now you see how I feel." Dib sighed. No matter what others may think of him, here working on Tak's ship, even with the ship insulting him or lecturing him or making him feel uncomfortable, he knew that this was his. His project, his zen, his peace, and place to just get away from it all. He looked over at the clock and sighed. "It's one in the morning. I have school and getting tired of being yelled at for falling asleep in school."

"Doesn't seem like you need it, but it is required by your government. Just make sure you lock up. Squirrels don't need to come in contact with that core."

"Will do." Dib said as he put away the tools, shut off his equipment and locked the garage for the night.

So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. I guess this could be taken as DATR if you really wanted it to, but there isn't much here to suggest that. Which is unusual for me, as that is my Invader Zim OTP but hey, not everything needs to be oozing pairings. Anyway, this was written for the Writer's Anonymous Special Places challenge so you can check more out there on the forum here. Anyway, remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm.


End file.
